The sun rises in the east, Its warm light bathes the woods in peace. The birds twitter in the trees, A welcome sound to greet the morning. I walk along the lush path, Taking my time to enjoy the scenery. The air is fresh and clean, And the sounds of nature are all around me. I feel at peace in the woods, Far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I can hear the wind in the trees, And the sound of the birds singing. I am content to simply be here, In the moment, enjoying the beauty of nature. I am grateful for this time to myself, To relax and rejuvenate. I know that I will return to the woods again soon, To find peace and solitude. This is my place of refuge, Where I can escape the stresses of everyday life.
Tag: Peace
World is full of fear but
The world is full of fear, Without love, there's only tears. But in the darkness, there is light, Shining through the night. A mind that is free, Can think of things that are new. No worries, no pain,Just peace and love again. Equality for all,No hate, no discrimination. A world where everyone is free, To live their life in harmony.
My Mind Still Yearns
Every object here looks dull and drab. Dust seems to be creeping everywhere stealthily, slowly and steadily enveloping every object with layers. It sits on leaves of trees where it becomes so thick that it begins to drizzle when leaves are shaken by the wind. It crosses the windows of houses and sits on chairs, tables, clothes and utensils.There is no escape from it. It is all pervading like God almighty.
It has flown above the soil surface and hangs day and night in the sky. It hangs above the surface along with the fog in the morning. Winds cannot scare it. It seems that it has begun to deposit on the mirror of my imagination dulling it, I cannot see myself clearly in this mirror.
Even the celestial moon does not seem to have been spared by the dullness of dust. Its pale light is dull and seems to struggling against the dust to reach the earth.
May be my mind is not placid. May be I am not happy and content. I am still haunted by the past. I have not been able to forget it and start the life anew here. It never leaves me and is relentlessly and ruthlessly follows me day in and day out.
However much I try to forget the days gone by, however much I try to convince my heart the futility of the situation, it does not listen. It weeps and yearns for the bygone days. My attachment does not fade. When mind is not happy, the entire world seems dull and not worth living.
May be this is true. Nobody else ever seems to be complaining. They even do not seem to taking any notice of the surroundings. How does it matter, if the moon is dull, only weak light is emanating from it. In fact, it seems like a piece of dead stone traveling slowly across the sky at night.
In the day time, sun does not send forth melting golden rays to the earth. The sky does not look azure and clear and eyes do not have any problem looking up to the sky. Stars seem to have lost their individuality and seem the dust speckled in the sky. I feel like crying loudly but stifle the feeling in my breast.
Nobel Prize Controversies
This article pertains to October 2015.
Nobel Prizes for this year are on. Already the prize for medicine has already been announced to William C. Campbell, Satoshi Ōmura and Tu Youyou on nature based medicines. Prizes in other categories will be announced one by one.
There had been times when Controversies arose over the prizes. Following is the list of some controversial prizes.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Henry Kissinger
Peace prize to Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, in 1973 is considered as the most controversial. Two members resigned from committee in protest.Milton Friedman
Economics prize to Milton Friedman in 1076 for his work on free markets. His association with Chilean dictator Pinochet irked the protesters.
Barrack Obama
When Barack Obama received peace prize in 2009. He was less than a year in office. Judges noticed even Obama was not too enthusiastic about it.
Jules Hoffman, Bruce Beutler, Ralph Steinman
Medicine prize to Jules Hoffman, Bruce Beutler, Ralph Steinman in 2011. This prize would have been uncontroversial except for the fact that Steinman had died a few days earlier the prize was announced. Controversial point was that it cannot be given posthumously and committee made the exception saying they were not aware of his death.
Mahatma Gandhi
And Nobel Prize for Mahatma Gandhi that never was. There is hardly anyone in the world who doesn’t know his contribution towards non violence. In fact he was the founder of this movement. He was nominated 5 times for the but never won. This again may be due to pressure from the powerful nation. The Nobel committee has since realized the biggest blunder they have committed. His non violence movement has in fact become guiding star for people such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. In 1989 when peace prize was given to Dalai lama the chairman of committee paid rich tributes to Gandhi.
What is Peace?
It has been days I have felt peace and tranquility of mind. In fact it seems that I am living in a state oblivious of my state of mind. Neither do I ever feel that I am calm, neither do I feel very much excited.
What is peace after all? Some say it is the state of mind when your body is in agreement with mind. There is no struggle between two. They seem to merge into one another. In the turbulent state of mind, mind it seems is detached from the body and hovers outside. Body and mind are completely out of sync.
My state of mind is not what Buddha advocated. The middle path. In the state advocated by Buddha, there is peace of mind. Mind is not overly affected either by moments of happiness or by sorrows. It is most difficult to control the feelings which comes when we are elated. We like the world to know that I am happy. When we are unhappy we seek the sympathizers!
What colour is the peace? Some say it is white while others say it is green. Pigeons are symbols of white colored peace while woods are the green colored peace. But pigeons though they don’t seem to harm others, supposed to be innocent and easy target for birds of prey, are very aggressive in the company of their ilk. They will fight with each other to scare away the weaker from the food.
They seem to be deeply involved in the procreation. Their droppings are very corrosive and contain an enzyme. If they fall on the cars they can damage the paint of car if not removed timely. But the enzyme has been used in the tanneries to make the softest leather as the enzyme decomposes any flesh clinging on the hide. In fact, in Fez in Morocco, famous for the best leather in the world, droppings are in great demand.
Whatever the season, I always find the male pigeons dancing around the females wooing them for copulation. Woods as such seem to be beautiful from a distance. Enter into them and you will have to struggle to keep yourself safe from the animals harbored in them. There are woods which are so dense that even the sun rays find it difficult to penetrate.
Peace is in our minds, it comes from within. It is the way we perceive the world. Perceptions are different for different people. Even the way we see around us depends upon whether we are happy or sad. During many moods, sometimes a thing which interested us greatly once holds no interest at a later time. Sometimes emotions seem to be cyclic in nature. We are interested in a particular thing, then lose interest in it and again some events happen which recreate the interest again.
You can be at peace with yourself, if you don’t have high desires and take the life as it comes.
Peace Eludes My Mind
Peace, the most cherished of human desires, eludes me. Humans go to any lengths to find solace. Day in and day out, I find myself in the labyrinth of thoughts from which there seems to be no escape. I am very poor at solving puzzles and always avoid and try to find the easy ways out. Life’s challenges scare me. This tendency is called escapism. But now the differentials of the neglect have become gathering into indefinite integrals and it seems that confounding solution is near. The droplets have collected to become dam and dikes are becoming weaker and any time will give way. The dam will burst.
Most of the time, I am repenting on the lost time. It seems to me that I have been a wastrel of time all these years. Do other people feel like me? I doubt. But I now strongly realize that I have not utilized my potential. I have never let it convert into kinetic form and achieve something. Many times I seem to feel defeated. I try to pick up the gauntlet but soon realize the stamina is not there to translate. Maybe I am not so much of a failure as I think myself to be, yet I am sure I could have done much. Now, I remember the lines of song written by Hindi poet Neeraj, saying that I had stood watching and opportunities, bliss, and happiness had passed at a nearby distance.
I have been a onlooker, I never tried to catch the butterflies hovering over the flowers, or fireflies in the night.
Nobel Prizes: USA far ahead in tally
There is no doubt that USA laps up the talent from all over the world. US leads the tally of Nobel prize winners which were introduced in 1901 and Economics prize introduced in 1968. Since then 585 Nobel prizes have been awarded to 922 winners out of which only 49 are women.
Youngest and oldest
Youngest person to receive the Nobel is Malala Yousafzai who received it at the age of 17 years in 2014. Although she belongs to Pakistan, her country may hardly be happy over her winning it. Oldest Nobel laureate is Leonid Hurwicz of US who received the Nobel in 2004 for economics at the age of 90 years.
Countries at the top of list.
USA:
357 total
Chemistry: 73
Economics: 55
Literature: 12
Peace: 22
Physics: 94
Medicine: 101
U.K.
115 total
Chemistry: 29
Economics: 10
Literature: 9
Peace: 9
Physics: 26
Medicine: 32
Germany
82 total
Chemistry: 29
Economics: 8
Literature: 1
Peace: 4
Physics: 23
Medicine: 17
France
57 total
Chemistry: 8
Economics: 2
Literature: 15
Peace: 8
Physics: 13
Medicine: 11
Sweden
33 total
Chemistry: 5
Economics: 2
Literature: 9
Peace: 5
Physics: 4
Medicine: 8
Major areas of research leading to Nobel
In physics is particle physics and in chemistry is biochemistry. Research in genetics most hot topic and in economics it is micro economics.
Nobel winners of Indian origin
Ronald Ross: Medicine 1902
Rabindranath Tagore: Literature 1913
C.V.Raman: Physics in 1930
Hargobind Khurana: Medicine in 1968
Mother Teresa: Peace in 1979
Subramanyan Chandrasekhar: Physics in 1983
Amartya Sen: Economics in 1998
Venkatraman Ramakrishnan: Chemistry in 2009
Kailash Satyarthi: Peace in 2014
Nobel Prize Controversies
Nobel Prizes for this year are on. Already the prize for medicine has already been announced to William C. Campbell, Satoshi Ōmura, Youyou Tu on nature based medicines. Prizes in other categories will be announced one by one.
There had been times when Controversies arose over the prizes. Following is the list of some controversial prizes.
-
Literature prize to Aleksandr Solzhenitzyn in 1970. Solzhenitzyn is well known for highlighting the plight of political prisoners sent to labor camps in Siberia. The communist regime of the then USSR had declared the prize as a provocation and he was not allowed to receive the prize. He received the prize after 4 years after he migrated to USA.
-
Peace prize to Henry kissinger and Le Duc Tho, in 1973 is considered as the most controversial. Two members resigned from committee in protest
-
Economics prize to Milton Friedman in 1076 for his work on free markets. His association with Chilean dictator Pinochet irked the protesters.
-
When Barack Obama received peace prize in 2009. He was less than a year in office. Judges noticed even Obama was not too enthusiastic about it.
-
Medicine prize to Jules Hoffman, Bruce Beutler, Ralph Steinman in 2011. This prize would have been uncontroversial except for the fact that Steinman had died a few days earlier the prize was announced. Controversial point was that it cannot be given posthumously and commitee made the exception saying they were not aware of his death.
And Nobel Prize for Mahatma Gandhi that never was. There is hardly anyone in the world who doesn’t know his contribution towards non violence. In fact he was the founder of this movement. He was nominated 5 times for the but never won. This again may be due to pressure from the powerful nation. The Nobel committee has since realized the biggest blunder they have committed. His non violence movement has in fact become guiding star for people such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
In 1989 when peace prize was given to Dalai lama the chairman of committee paid rich tributes to Gandhi.
Another Iraq!!
There is another Iraq. It is village situated in Ludhiana district of Punjab India. The village which is 30 kilometers from Ludhiana shares its name with West Asian country, presently torn by strife. People are being killed brutally by the terrorist outfit ISIS which some say is backed by Sunni Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia. Iraq is dominated by Shia Muslims. 
The Iraq in Punjab is just the opposite.
It is peaceful. No crimes in many years. People live in perfect harmony. The 800 people strong village is at pains that the namesake country is going through the most horrific days. In two years, here only one crime has been reported. Village near here take pride in the fact that they live in a peaceful Iraq. Villagers here want this Iraq to be recognized as a role model for peace in the state
Genesis of the name Iraq is like this. Earlier name was “Irakh” which is Arabic name for wild bull or pony like animal. During the periods when Muslims ruled Punjab, the people here used this animal to cross the small river which was in spate during rains.
After the partition, Muslims from here left for Sialkot in Pakistan. Presently there is not a single Muslim family. People mostly work in Ludhiana factories.
This name many a times, caused problems to its residents going abroad. Their passport is checked thoroughly. One of the passport officer even began locating it on the Google maps.
What is Peace?
It has been days I have felt peace and tranquility of mind. In fact it seems that I am living in a state oblivious of my state of mind. Neither do I ever feel that I am calm, neither do I feel very much excited.
What is peace after all? Some say it the state of mind when your body is in agreement with mind. There is no struggle between two of them. They seem to merge into one another. In the turbulent state of mind, mind it seems is detached from the body and hovering outside. Body and mind are completely out of sync.
My state of mind is not what Buddha advocated. The middle path. In the state advocated by Buddha, there is peace of mind. Mind is unaffected overly neither by moments of happiness nor by sorrows. It is most difficult to control the feeling which comes when we are elated. We like the world to know that I am happy. When we are unhappy we seek the sympathizers.
What colour is the peace? Some say it is white while others say it is green. Pigeons are symbols of white colored peace while woods are the green colored peace. But pigeons though they don’t seem to harm others, supposed to be innocent and easy target for birds of prey, are very aggressive in the company of their ilk. They will fight with each other to scare away the weaker from the food. They seem to be deeply involved in the procreation. Their droppings are very corrosive and contain an enzyme. If they fall on the cars they can damage the paint of car if not removed timely. But the enzyme has been used in the tanneries to make the softest leather as the enzyme decomposes any flesh clinging on the hide. In fact, in Fez in Morocco, famous for the best leather in the world, droppings are in great demand.
Whatever the season, I always find the male pigeons dancing around the females wooing them for copulation. Woods as such seem to be beautiful from a distance. Enter into them and you will have to struggle to keep yourself safe from the animals harbored in them. There are woods which are so dense that even the sun rays find it difficult to penetrate.
Peace is in our minds, it comes from within. It is the way we perceive the world. Perceptions are different for different people. Even the way we see around us depends upon whether we are happy or sad. During many moods, sometimes a thing which interested us greatly once holds no interest at a later time. Sometimes emotions seem to be cyclic in nature. We are interested in a particular thing, then lose interest in it and again some events happen which recreate the interest again.
You can be at peace with yourself, if you don’t have high desires and take the life as it comes.
Free Thoughts by Ranjit Singh 